A Brain In His Chest
by PrimaPrime
Summary: After returning from the Wreckers' attack on Turmoil's ship, Perceptor has to admit some things to his mentor, Kup. Total change of plans and mind is never a good thing... (Cover art by yamaishi on DA)


Perceptor was lying on his circuit slab looking at the ceiling speechless. A life support machine was keeping him from falling into statis lock. Anyone could assume from the big bloodstained would on his chest that Turmoil had taken him down really bad after all. His canon's gunfire wasn't kind on his chassis. The red microscope tried to sit on his circuit slab, but a strong wave of pain kept him down and he stood completely still to avoid further damage. He groaned and kept trying to bend his torso ignoring the following waves of strong pain that caused glitches in his systems. Perceptor shook his head like he was trying to clear his thoughts and stared at the patched up hole on his chest plate annoyed. The quick work the medics had done didn't let him move properly and he cursed Turmoil reaching at least a more comfortable position. He passed his hand gently over the bandages like he was petting his chest and examinated it. The canon blast had blown away his chest plate leaving his circuits and inner vital functions uncovered, while his spark was beating rhythmically in his chest. The Autobot grinned mercifully to the round blue-ish organ and breathed out thankful for everything that had happened the last hours. Except almost ruining the Wreckers' mission, having a short brush with death and being shot with such a powerful weapon, everything else was fine.

He was still alive after all, right?

Next to his circuit slab, someone had left a small rectangular datapad with a cracked light green screed. Perceptor turned around and saw it lying on a white cupboard with some other things like tools and an empty cracked glass. He picked the datapad and opened it slidding its green protective cover to each side. A small pop-up message appeared on the screen and the scientist red it passing his finger under each line.

 _You are on Xantium, the Wreckers' warship, in the small medical facility. We called a paramedic to patch your wounds up, but he has still work to do. Don't move, and call us when you feel better._

The message disappeared and Perceptor looked around him for the first time, as his vision was cleaning slowly. The red messages that were poping in front of his optics as warnings for his low energy levels, cleared after a while, and the mech managed to recognise the most of the objects that were filling the room he was in. He was lying on a clean medium-sized cirsuit slab and at the feet of it, someone had left his guns. At the right of the bed there was the cupborad from which he had taken the datapad with the message and at the left, there was a small spark support machine, which was connected at his spark with long black cables. The door of the room was opposite his ciruit slab, but it could be hardly seen, as someone had left three piles of grey file containers in front of it. At his left, there were three huge computer screens, which were covering the wall with their green light. Under the screen, there was a long white desk full of tools, datapads, notes and many more unfinished experiments that were waiting for someone to come and complete them. In front of the desk there were two shinny red stools with four wheels and under the desk, there were two big red cupboards with white handles on the drawers. At the other side of the room there was another smaller desk and a big box that seemed extremely heavy to be carried around. Perceptor nodded to himself recognising his room and rubbed his back in pain. How long has he been here?  
Perceptor stretched his left arm and placed carefully the datapad on the cupboard next to his bed. He sighed recognising Springer's voice coming from the hallways outside and called him through his com-link. The green mech nodded to his call and some minutes later he knocked the door. He opened the door slowly and three mechs got in. The younger one sat at the edge of Perceptor's circuit slab, while the other two sat on the stools that they took from his desk. Springer grinned with the half grin of his and patted him on the shoulder.  
"How are you soldier? Feelin' better?"  
"Kind of Springer" he replied "Thank you for asking"  
Springer glanced at the open wound on his chest and loathed.  
"That was a bad lesion kid" said Kup while Drift was stooping over Perceptor's body "Maybe we should have gone to the mission without you" the oldtimer added smoking his Cygar slowly.  
"I'm sorry Kup, I wasn't ready for this" the scientist admitted and Drift interrupted him. "He isn't talking about that. You shouldn't have got injured that much. We are to blame, because we didn't protect you completely. I did my best though." He added and Perceptor nodded trying to smile.  
"Thank you Drift" he said relieved "All of you have been shot multiple times and survived that. I always believed that a bullet causes less suffering to its victim, but I have to admit that it is burning my circuits. I've never been shot, and I hate to admit that it isn't one of my favorite experiences"  
Kup stared at the wound on the scientist's chest and moved his head thinking. Neither him, nor his men had even been shot with such a powerful weapon and as a result, Perceptor was suffering even more pain than them. Being shot was something really ordinary for a Wrecker. _Same for dying,_ he thought bitterly.  
"Sadly, that's the dark side of every weapon that falls in the wrong hands in times of war" said Drift petting the lond clean blades of his swords "That's why I always use swords. It takes skill and wisdom to use them, for both good and bad porpuses."  
Perceptor didn't pay any attetnion to his words and stared at the ceiling like he was trying to change the form of it with his bright blue optics. Suddenly, he grabbed the sides of his circuit slab in pain and yelled. He closed his optics and groaned panting. The three Wreckers looked at him worried and Kup held his hand.  
"What's goin' on kid? Are you OK?" he asked as Perceptor was opening his optics again. The blue lences flared and he answered "My spark… is burning!"  
Kup nodded and crossed his arms, leaving Perceptor's hand on his chest. "Your spark is repairing your circuits. Hold on, it takes quite a time to finish."  
"It hurts sir" he complained sad "I never thought you all have experienced this ever before. I knew these things only in theory, but, I've never felt the feeling in real life"  
Spinger raised his shoulders "I'm not surprised. You are a scientist, you've never taken part in a fight."  
"I used to thing that being intelligent was enough" Perceptor told him disappointed and leaned on Drift's shoulder and used his strong arm to support his damaged spine. He got up slowly shaking and walked to his desk with his white friend's help. He took Kup's stool and sat on it, looking at them "I have to work now alone, I need silence to concetrate. I've got some new projects to work on, and I've falled behind with the procedure"  
Drift and Springer raised their shoulders and agreed leaving Kup and Perceptor by their own. They closed the heavy door with Perceptor's name on it and headed down to the headquorters of the ship. Kup approached the young mech sucking his Cygar and looked at what he was holding over his left shoulder. Perceptor was holding a datapad, looking up something that seemed important to him. He was looking through the files that it was containing, at a burning ryphm that would have burned Kup's CPU if he had tried to do it. Perceptor was passing a page per second and his optics were scaning them flaring as the data were passing in his brain module to be processed. Kup stood by his side amazed and patted him on the back of the neck.  
"What are ya doin' 'gain kid? Another super crazy idea came up?"  
The red microscope sighed annoyed and took a stylus from a case on his desk. He opened a mew designing page on another larger datapad and drew quickly a simple blurry sketch of a Cybetronian endoskeleton. He added the chassis and the most basic inner vital functions like a Transformation Cog, a Brain Module and a Spark. He pushed the stool back to study his anatomy for some akward minutes and added some more details in the sketch, like a thiner waist and a large chestplate.  
"Kid, are ya listenin' t' anythin' I've said?" hummed Kup "I'm persevering"  
Perceptor turned his stool and gave a sharp look to his mentor; "I've told you sir to leave me alone. I want to work by my own for a while. Come by later if you want, I have the need to think some things and incidents that are bothering me."  
Kup shook his head and took the datapad from his hands and studied the messy drawing curious; "What are you drawing over there Perceptor? What kind of armor is that?"  
"Don't!" he shouted and grabbed the datapad from his hands "What have you seen sir?" he asked and hugged the datapad with the screen on his open chest so his mentor wouldn't see anything.  
"There's somethin' wrong with ya lad after that incident with Turmoil. Tell me, what's botherin' ya?"  
Perceptor glanced at the datapad's screen ashamed and left it on his desk, along with the stylus. He crossed his arms and lowered his head a little bit, like he was trying to hide his face.  
" _Tell me_ " Kup insisted and tapped his fingertips on the white surface waiting patiently for an answer.  
"I want to be…" he hesitated for some long seconds trying to find the guts to say it out loud. "…one of your comrades in arms. I'm sick of staying behind in every mission because I am not tough enough."  
"And what are you going to do about it kid?" Kup asked curious and jumped from the desk landing behind Perceptor's stool. He turned its wheels around and stepped on them, to stop it from turning around and looked at his soldier serious.  
"I'm thinking of modifying myself. I'll build a new armor around my endoskeleton adding new features that will help me in close combat. Don't worry" he waved his hands "I have the knowledge to do everything I want. I'll be careful and I won't disturb you, I promise. No one will know, except you and me."  
Kup stared at him clearly surprised and rubbed his left optic sleepy.  
"But why? If you had a change of heart you could've asked me to put you in a drill along with the others. You could have asked for the opportunity to be trained!"  
Perceptor held the datapad carefully and kept drawing his chassis's armor. After some minutes he left the pad down and cracked his fingers playing with the stylus tapping it on the desk.  
"I had to be honest with myself just for once. In the early days of the war I was hiding from my concerns. I had forgotten totally about my duties in the army. Every time I was called in, every time that i recieved that letter calling me to join forces, I would always find a way to turn it down. I was using my projects as an excuse, or even better I would present my altmode as a disadvantadge against my comrades in arms." he said and paused for a moment to shallow "I didn't fight in the war's earliest days, as I had assured myself that I was too clever to get killed in the battlefield. Only the thought of my grey body left to rust in pieces without even a coffin to take me to my beloved ones seemed frightening. My friends in the labratory that I was working were picking up their new brightly-cleaned weapons and leaving one after another. I was one of the last ones who left. I can still remember Highwire's bright grin when he recieved his invitation. He was goodbyeing everyone smiling and laughing as he was picking his things. I was watching from a corner messing with some reports. I used to think that he was naine and that he was ready to waste his finest hours hiding behind debris to save a cause that no one ever believed in. He was getting to get killed willingly according to me. According to anyone else, he was _brave_."  
Kup grinned at him quite sad and patted his shoulder friendly "Something tells me that you saw him again and regretted everything that you had said until now."  
"No Kup..." Perceptor said shaking his head "Ten months later a black bow was delivered during night time at our lab. When we opened it, we were all shocked. Inside there was a small body with no limps and with a half blown off head. The cold grey remains were Highwire's corpse. I had never seen something so... harsh and brutal."  
"And after that incident you started to blame yourself. Classic change of plans" noted Kup smoking  
"I started thinking that as the others were fighting in the battlefields, I was studying some nonesence projects in my labratory." Perceptor said and left his datapad down. A messy sketch of a new chest plate appeared. He cleared the blurry lines and took the lenght of his chest with a large ruler.  
"That wasn't right. Clearly. So, I made up my mind and joined the Wreckers. During the first months no one would let me join any missions. I can understand why and I am do not feel bad. Today was my first cahnce to preve that I was worth being one of them, but instead, I ruined the attack on Turmoil's warship. I fail. If Drift hadn't dragged my unconsious body out of the ship and jumped to safety, I would be dead. I turned the plan into a mess, I am so sorry."  
The veteran grinned and holded his Cygar between his fingers. He got up and walked to the circuit slab, returning with some thick bandages. He stood behind Perceptor's back and placed them on his chest, covering his spark. Kup fastened them tightly and the scientist groaned as his mentor was tightening the knot.  
"If this is what you want" Kup told him as he was sitting back on the desk "I promise that I'll help you."  
Perceptor's optics widened and shined with a light blue colour happily. He smirked and patted the bandages on his chest. "Thank you Kup"  
"Nothing kid. I'll keep the rest of the crew occupied with something else. I'll let you work alone as you wanted. Deal?"  
Perceptor got back to work and rubbed his hands together "I won't disappoint you sir"  
Kup stood up for the last time and leaned at the exit tappind his foot on the ground. He threw on his desk a thick piece of blue glass with a black targeting cross on it. Before closing the door, Kup smiled at Perceptor who was examining the glass and said;  
"I am sure you'll find a clever way to use it." he said closing the doo.

"You've got a _brain in your chest_ kid. Use it wisely and don't waste it"


End file.
